CV upends Ephrata legion

Ephrata's Branden Rutt (right) is caught in a rundown with Marietta's Ben Shanandoah during Saturday's District 10 legion game at War Memorial. (Photo by Preston Whitcraft)

Ephrata went into Tuesday night’s home game vs. Conestoga Valley with a chance to clinch the East Division title.

Unfortunately, the Post 429ers will have to wait at least one more game to accomplish that goal.

CV, which saw an 8-2 lead vanish when Ephrata posted a six-run eighth inning to tie the game, scored a single run in the bottom of the sixth (they were the home team) to clinch a wild 9-8 victory over Ephrata.

Nate Staffieri came through with a clutch two-out bloop single off Ephrata reliever Ryan Brubaker in the bottom of the sixth to plate pitcher Tyler Schmitt with the go-ahead run. Schmitt then set Ephrata down in turn in the top of the seventh to close out the CV victory.

CV, leaders of the South Division, improved to 8-2 on the season while Ephrata, which still leads second-place Manheim (5-5) in the East, dropped to 7-4. Ephrata, which has already clinched a spot in next week’s District 10 double-elimination tournament (to be played entirely at War), will close out the season with a home game Thursday vs. Lititz and Friday with the completion of a suspended game vs. New Holland.

Tuesday, CV roughed up Ephrata starter Andre Hoover early, scoring three in the first and three in the third to open up a 6-2 lead. Evan Young relieved Hoover in the fourth and was touched for an additional two runs as CV , which had 13 hits for the game, opened it up to 8-2.

"The beginning of the game I give (CV) a lot of credit," Ephrata Coach Derek Sipe said. "They came out and put the ball in play and a lot of the balls found holes. They didn’t hit all of them hard but they were put in play. They got a good amount of runs and ‘Hoove’ didn’t have his best stuff. They did what they needed to do and you got to give the credit to their lineup for that."

Ephrata managed just two hits through the first five innings off CV starter Joey Moyer. However, as Moyer began to tire, Ephrata’s bats began to heat up in the sixth.

Paul Larusso (2-for-5) drew a lead-off walk and one-out later moved to second before going to third on Parke Martin’s infield single. Ryan Schwark then blooped a single to left to score Larusso and make it 8-3. Branden Rutt then drew a walk to load the bases before Hoover (2-for-2) lofted an RBI single to left to make it 8-4. Evan Weaver then walked to force in a run, and Schmitt then replaced Moyer. Dusten Rutt then greeted him with a two-run single to center to cut the CV lead to 8-7. Luke Morgan then followed with an RBI groundout and the game was knotted at 8-8.

"To tell you the truth I thought we were kind of dead to the water," Sipe said. "That (rally) kind of came out of no where but we were able to put together a couple of good at bats and things started to fall our way. All of a sudden we found ourselves in a tie game."

Unfortunately for Ephrata, it didn’t remain tie for long as Staffieri delivered the game winner in the bottom of the inning off Brubaker, who became Ephrata’s fourth pitcher of the night.

"’Bru’ came in and I thought he did well," Sipe said. "He threw strikes for us but they hit a blooper and got the run. Unfortunately, we had the heart of the lineup up (in the seventh) but we weren’t able to put anything together."

Sipe said he’s spending the last week getting his deep pitching staff rest to line them up for what he hopes will be another long post-season run.

"We are obviously in a good spot," he said. "Pretty much everyone gets in the playoffs but we should be in the top half so in the first game we’ll probably get against a team that finished in the lower half and I think that will be good. We got our pitching set up well. All of our guys are going to have plenty of rest. I like how that sets up for us. We’ll have everyone fresh, healthy and ready to go. And I think we’ll finally be able to get our lineup together. We haven’t had our complete lineup together so that will be nice. We’ll be in a good spot with the lineup and I think our pitching will be able to carry us. We’re excited to get into the next phase of the season."

In addition to Monday’s contest, Ephrata split a pair of league games late last week.

Last Thursday in New Holland, the host team scored four runs in the bottom of the first take early command. Ephrata eventually rallied to take a 6-5 lead but could not hold it as New Holland scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to earn a 7-6 victory.

Ephrata did rebound with a solid 5-1 victory Saturday at home vs. Marietta.

In that one, the host squad scored twice in the bottom of the first and added single runs in the second, third and fourth innings. That was more than enough for pitcher Dusten Rutt, who mowed down Marietta, striking out 11 while scattering six hits in a complete-game victory. More LEGION, page B-2